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Road rage shooting plea delayed

Webster defense given to July to consider mental health reports

A man accused of a road rage shooting that killed a teenage boy in June will get until January to decide how to plead.

Judge Don Quick gave Jeremy Webster and his legal team until Jan. 7 to review mental health assessments at a Nov. 27 arraignment hearing. Quick agreed to delay the hearing, saying he won’t be so eager to grant delays when the actual trial get started.

“The court is going to allow one continuation of the arraignment because I want the trial date to be the date we’re going to do,” Quick said. “I’ll give you time on the front end rather than continuing the trial date.”

Webster, 23, of Colorado Springs, faces first-degree murder and other charges for the June 14 shooting at the Cedarwood Square Office Complex at 80th and Sheridan.

He’s is accused of killing 13-year-old Vaughn Bigelow, Jr. and seriously wounding the boy’s 8-year-old brother and his mother. Another man, 40-year-old John Gale of Arvada, was sitting in a truck nearby parked in the dental office lot and was also shot.

Webster’s attorneys continued to call attention to mental health issues, noting at an October hearing that he told police his memories of the shooting were like a bad dream, where he was watching a third person commit the crimes.

“The defense team has been working with Mr. Webster to fully understand the nature and depth of the mental illness that is affecting his behavior,” Attorney Stuart Rubenstein said.

Quick also agreed to allow Westminster detectives to collect a DNA sample from Webster after the hearing that will be compared to unnamed evidence found during the investigation.

Sirens cause road rage

According to police testimony at hearings in October, 41-year-old Meghan Bigelow was driving her three sons to a June 14 dentist appointment in suburban Denver. As they neared the office in Westminster, Bigelow heard emergency sirens behind her and tried to pull into the right lane. She veered back to the left when she saw a black Toyota Corolla already in that lane. She and Webster, the driver of the black Corolla, traded insults shouted through open windows.

Police said Bigelow and her middle son, Cooper, later told detectives that Webster sped up when Bigelow tried to get in front of his car. They said Webster followed and pulled up behind them in the dental office’s lot.

Meghan Bigelow told police that she and Webster briefly argued, and as he began to drive away she took a video of his license plate and said she would contact police. At that point, she said, he backed up then got out of the car holding a handgun.

As she walked away, Webster shot her in the back, police said.

Witnesses said Webster walked away from the area at least once, then returned and began firing again, at one point pressing the muzzle of the gun to 13-year-old Vaughn’s head before firing.

Vaughn Bigelow died at a hospital. An autopsy found he had been shot in the head and the right arm.

Asa Bigelow was shot at least three times, including one bullet that entered his left cheek and exited on the right side of his face. Meghan Bigelow was shot multiple times in her abdomen and once on the right side of her head.

Police found a handgun in Webster’s trunk and say he admitted to shooting the family.

According to an arrest affidavit released in June, Webster also told detectives he had “mental health issues’’ and began taking a new medication that day.

The psychiatrist told police Webster had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was prescribed antipsychotics and antidepressant medication.

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